The church of Fucito was in session Tuesday night in Seattle. Reverend Mike was in rare form and treated the Brougham End congregation to a 4-1 comeback Rave Green victory. Tuesday, Sounders FC hosted CSD Comunicaciones of Guatemala in the Group D opener of CONCACAF Champions League play. The match was lively and quite entertaining from the first whistle. Along with the five total goals, referee Paul Delgadillo handed out ten cautions and two players were ejected. Both sides would only finish with ten men on the field.
Los Cremas took an early lead in the 2nd minute when Brayan Ordonez’s cross found a streaking Jairo Arreola at the far post for the games first goal. The Sounders defense was looking a bit unorganized and a tad sluggish. The Brougham faithful were looking for a savior to keep this game from becoming a rout.
In the 21st minute Mike Fucito began to show his glory when he collided with the Comunicaciones ‘keeper on a 50/50 ball sent in by Leo Gonzalez. No foul was called, play was allowed to move on, but the visiting defense was able to clear the danger.
In the 35th minute the church of Fucito opened the crowd’s eyes and allowed his people to see the light. Fucito composed a majestic in-swinger from the corner spot that found Brad Evans on the edge of the 6 yard box. Evans received the offering and put a divine header off the underside of the crossbar and into the goal to bring the score even at one. The two clubs would head into half as equals.
Soon after the 2nd half started Lamar Neagle committed two reckless acts categorized as “violent conduct”. Lamar was ejected from the match for the 2nd of those fouls in the 55th minute. The Sounders were down to ten men, yet ready to preach to the faithful.
Just six minutes after the Rave Green were a man down, the 1stcoming of Fucito shown Himself to the masses. Fredy Montero played the preacher into the box in the 61st minute with Fucito turning the ball inside before striking the ball with great force inside the far post. 2-1, Seattle has taken the lead.
Another six minutes after that tally, DP Alvaro Fernandez sent a through ball that found Fucito clearly onside and able to get behind the Guatemalan defense. The 2nd coming of Fucito was glorious! He guided the ball perfectly into the area and slotted a beautiful left footer into the net for the 3-1 lead. He raised his arms to the sky and gladly accepted his followers praise.
In the 79th minute, divine intervention seemed to keep the ball out of the Sounders goal. Patrick Ianni defended a cross from Comunicaciones that appeared to cross the line. It’s always tough to call with the angle of the TV cameras, but Los Cremas felt passionate enough about the ball crossing the line that Edgard Martinez argued and pleaded for the call only to be shown straight red from the referee and ordered off the field. Both teams were back to even numbers on the field playing ten per side.
Shortly after the visitors would add insult to injury. El Flaco played a ball in from the right side of the box with Evans and Fucito crashing down on the chance at another goal. Las Cremas substitute Rigoberto Gomez stole their thunder though and defended the ball into his own net for the final tally of the match. Sounders FC would play the 4-1 result to the final whistle for the victory.
The man of the match has yet to tally a goal in the MLS regular season, but has been brilliant in both Champions League and Open Cup competitions this year. Fucito has now scored a brace in both competitions this season, and has tallied five goals and an assist all time in CCL play.
Head coach Sigi Schmid placed his trust in the small forward from Harvard and inserted him into a starting position this night. Fucito was up to the challenge for sure and repaid his manager with solid play lighting up the box-score. Performances like this make a good case for more time on the field, and I’m sure the fans will be calling for it. Sigi will have to weigh his options and ultimately make the tough decision of playing Fucito this Saturday in league play or saving him for the next CCL match on Tuesday in Mexico versus defending champions CD Monterrey.
Praise Fucito!
(image courtesy of soundersfc.com)
